Cotton Fist was written by Eric. He started the zine in 1997 after coming across various zines and freesheets and feeling they weren’t dealing with subjects that he was interested in, such as animal liberation, animal rights, and anti-fascism, which would make up the content of early issues, along with record and cider reviews. Getting more aware of other zines and avenues of writing, Eric tried to put more of a personal perspective on political issues. The last issue of Cotton Fist , which was the 17th issue, was a split zine with another Dublin punk zine Bite the hand that feeds the poisoned food and was released in 2005.

Over the years of doing Cotton Fist Eric expanded its distribution from purely local by sending it for trade/ review to other zines and to various shops, distros and individuals in Australia, North America and all over Europe.